After the disaster that was One Punch Man season 2, J.C. Staff has proven itself to not learn from their mistakes and destroy yet another great show.
Story - 2
Danmacci season 2 has 2 story arcs so far. One involves the war game with the Apollo family and the other is about saving Haruhime (and i guess all of Orario) from the Ishtar family. Now personally, I don't mind the fact that there are 2 separate arcs in a 12 episode season, however I do mind the fact that they are both executed extremely poorly. The story is that the Apollo family wants to take Bell away from Hestia and declare a war game to do so (after creating havoc in the city). From what the setting tells us about the characters is that they are all fairly intelligent under a capitalistic economic structure and governed by appropriate laws. So when the Apollo family decides to attack the Hestia family and disrupt the peace of the city, how are they not convicted of any crimes? This is a major plot hole that completely disregards any meaning to the setting and its characters. On top of that, Apollo's reason for wanting Bell in the first place was by no means worth sacrificing all his property and money. This is the prime example of plot convenience.
As of episode 8 in the Ishtar arc, the story is just downright an eyesore. Haruhime is a princess from the far east that got taken into custody by the Ishtar family and forced to work as a prostitute, however, she holds a secret ability that makes her extremely useful in aiding in battle. Bell and the familia want to save Haruhime from being abused constantly by the Ishtars so they decide to buy her when they have enough money. Now you'd think the story is just a rescue mission, when reality it's just a horrorful reverse rape fetish. In one scene, Bell gets his genitals grabbed by an ugly woman which shows how a decent show went from being a fantasy genre anime into a tragic hentai. I will go into more detailed criticism about the Istar familia in the characters portion.
Sound and Art - 6
Nothing much to tell here. The animations and aesthetics are fairly decent.
Characters - 1
One of the reasons I liked Danmacci season 1 was because of how the characters develop throughout the show. For example, Lilith overcame her fear of her previous family after sucking up to them for most her life. In Danmacci season 2, there has been absolutely no character development whatsover so far in the show and every single character is unengaging.
One of the reasons season 1 is good is because of Hestia's child-like personality. In season 2 however, there is a complete lack of Hestia and it's almost as if she's a side character especially in the Ishtar arc.
For the members of the Apollo family, each and every one of them only say lines like "come with me Bell, or suffer." It is honestly just painful to hear every time and they have no development at all for the main antagonists of the arc.
As for each and every member of the Ishtar clan, they are all a complete eyesore to look at as Iv'e mentioned before. One of the main problems i noticed early on with these characters is that they're all prostitutes yet they want the lay with Bell for free. This is a complete contradiction to what these characters should really be. As for the fat and ugly Ishtar specifically, she went from being a funny character that jokes about how she "gets all the guys" to being a psychotic rape dungeon torture maniac in the blink of an eye.
Now Bell in this season is a pea brain who doesn't understand half of what is happening around him which completely contradicts his character from the first season.
Enjoyment - 3
There is no denying that the aesthetics and battle in the war game were good to look at so i'll give it a 3 for that one episode.
Overall- 2
Now it may seem like I just sound butt-hurt and immature about all the Ishtar family scenes, however, that is not so as this is supposed to be a fantasy genre anime about a group of people who explore a dungeon and kill monsters. The turn of events make absolutely no sense towards the setting.
Now that that's out of the way, Danmacci doesn't succeed because they fail to make the characters engaging by provide 0 character development and dreadful story arcs.
